«My most recent piece Jade was probably the most challenging to date. It was inspired by the 19th century German Romantic landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich, whose paintings of trees appear both majestic and ominous. As an American urban dweller, my everyday experience of nature is much more prosaic. Jade is an attempt to reflect Friedrich’s iconic vision of sublime nature within a completely domestic object. The jade plant in this painting is a warm weather plant that has probably never even been allowed outdoors. When observed closely, even this innocuous houseplant can become a symbol of the complexity and mystery of nature.

The dramatic overhead lighting was intended to give Jade an almost religious glow from within, and also to showcase the translucency of the leaves. The horizon line of the painting is low to make the subject appear more imposing, and to draw the viewer up into the plant. While I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, the painting ended up being more difficult than anticipated. I thought that a rhythm would evolve for painting the leaves of the jade. However, I was continually surprised by the amount of variation throughout the plant and I was forced to treat each leaf individually. Several months of painting hundreds of leaves, each with its own unique nuances of hue, texture and light, became a rigorous technical challenge as well as a test of endurance.»

Eric Wert is an American painter born in Portland, Oregon in 1976. There he lives and works.

He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Northwestern University.

About his lush still lifes, says Eric:

«I want to create an image that one can be lost within. To me, still life painting is about looking intensely, about intimately exploring a subject. I hope that the paintings can convey that sense of intensity and fascination.»

«I think I always drew naturally. I just remember being in school and instead of taking notes in class it was easier for me to draw pictures. And I even have old sketchbooks and stuff. And when I look back at those drawing I’ll remember what we were talking about in chemistry class at the time. So for some reason there was some kind of mnemonic connection there and, you know, images were always much easier for to communicate with than language. Beyond that, yeah, I just loved drawing and it seemed reasonable to go to art school, that was my one skill that I thought I might have to offer to the world.»

«I just take on challenges and I think the way my work has progressed is that, I think maybe I’m a masochist or something, but I’m not really happy doing a painting unless it feels like I’m trying to overcome something or really deal with some kind of a challenge in seeing. If it’s too easy, then you become aware of the amount of labor you’re putting into it and then it’s just tedious labor. So I find that the challenge is what keeps me engaged, what makes me keep coming back to it day in and day out.»

«Well at the very beginning it was difficult. My work is extremely time consuming and so at the very beginning my prices were so low. It was just heartbreaking. I was lucky to be able to sell well, but when you get $600 for a drawing that you spent a month and a half on, 60 hours a week, it’s painful.

(...)

Eric: Yeah, well you’re a young artist and generally your gallery is going to set your prices for you. They know what the market is and it’s always best to defer to their advice. Sometimes younger artists will say, “Yeah, I spent hundreds of hours on this so it’s worth this much in terms of the time I spent on it.” That’s not actually true. You need to price it based on what the market value of the piece is based on your own experience. And so you’re gonna take some hits at the beginning, it’s gonna be painful. But once you build up that collector base then you can start to raise your prices.»

«A painting like Deluge often begins years before the painting is started. I’ll have an idea of what I want, but it can take forever to find just the right subjects to make it work.

The vase was bought in Thailand by friends. They weren’t willing to let me shatter it, so I bought a cheap vase and used that to study the broken ceramic structure. I start by arranging the still life and take hundreds of digital photos at many different exposures. Each element is shot from several angles to get a sense of the volume of the subject. Using photos and sketches, I get an idea of what the scale of the composition will be.»

«The painting begins with a very fluid line drawing where I can take the time to make adjustments to the composition. When the composition seems to work, I generally develop the painting piece by piece rather than as a whole. For Deluge, I started with the background and finished it before moving to the foreground elements. I have tried working the entire canvas in the past, but with complicated subjects I need to finish each element individually or I lose concentration.

Often my favorite part is at the end. When the painting starts to feel “real”, I’ll put away the still life objects and the photographs and respond to the reality in the painting. At this point the painting seems to take on a personality of its own. I try not to be too analytical, and just react to what the painting wants to be fully realized and complete.»

This is an open art blog, so you could find images eventually offensive or umconfortable.

If you're an artist and find here images of your art you want to be removed, just tell me and I'll do it immediately. I try to ask for permission always if artist is alive and there's a way to contact, bot not always is possible and there are things I think worth to be known.

In any case, the copyrights of all the images contained in this blog, except where noted, belong to the artists or the legal owners of such rights, and have been published nonprofit and for the only purpose of make the works known to the general public.

Enjoy "El Hurgador", make any comment you like (respecting artists, other visitors and myself), make suggestions, critics, leave your opinions and make your contributions. Always welcome.